Democracy and the Rule of Law

Beschreibung

Beschreibung

An international group of specialists from the fields of law, politics, economics, and philosophy address the question of why governments act or do not act according to laws. The authors interpret the rule of law as a strategic choice of actors with powerful interests, rather than as an exogenous constraint on politicians. The rule of law emerges when no group is strong enough to dominate the others, and political actors seek to resolve their conflicts by recourse to law. Law is thus deeply rooted in politics.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Part I: 1. Lineages of the rule of law; 2. Power, rules, and compliance; 3. Obedience and obligation in the Rechtsstaat; 4. The political foundations of democracy and the rule of law; 5. Why do political parties obey results of elections?; Part II: 6. The majoritarian reading of the 'rule of law'; 7. How can the rule of law rule? Cost imposition through decentralized mechanisms; 8. Dictatorship and the rule of law: rules and military power in Pinochet's Chile; Part III: 9. Courts as instruments of horizontal accountability: the case of Latin Europe; 10. Rule of democracy and rule of law; 11. The rule of law as a political weapon; 12. The question of the rule of law in Michel de Montaigne's Essais.

Pressestimmen

"[T]his book is clearly a must read for anyone interested in the question of what causes democracy and/or the rule of law." The Law and Politics Book Review